Digital Transformation Explained

‘Digital transformation’ is the phrase on everyone’s lips. Blogs and social networks are overflowing with posts on this topic, and CEOs are suddenly expected to be ‘in the know’ about digital strategy and to steer their companies in the right direction.

So what exactly does digital transformation mean and how do you apply it to your business? In its simplest form, digital transformation is the process of streamlining office procedures with the help of digital technologies such as cloud computing, mobility, big data, and collaboration.

Digital transformation goes beyond simply automating the existing process. Rather, it’s about reinventing the process, which means reducing the number of steps, the number of documents, and the number of people involved.

Information overload

The reason the ‘digital transformation’ phrase has generated so much buzz is because of the way digital technology has revolutionised the way we work.

We are living in a mobile-first, always switched on world, where things happen in real time and information knows no boundaries.

It’s been estimated that every two years, the world’s information doubles.

Today more than ever before it’s important that you streamline business processes, because the more streamlined they are, the quicker, easier, and cheaper they’re going to be for your business.

One example is dealing with paper. While the amount of information being managed electronically is increasing, ironically, so too is the amount of paper we’re using.

With data coming from multiple channels, businesses in every sector are now spending more time sifting through unstructured information arriving in multiple formats. This leads to decreased productivity and an increase in inefficient, manual processes.

While going ‘paperless’ is not really an option for most organisations just yet! – digital products like web conferencing and Microsoft Office 365 can assist in minimising the amount of paper processing you do.

In fact, businesses that have begun the process of converting documents into electronic formats claim they are 14% more effective.

This is because ‘digitising’ data in this way can help your business to: